Premium Essay

Financial and Reporting

In: Business and Management

Submitted By splvijayuae
Words 530
Pages 3
Describe the different users of financial statements and their needs
The following are the different users of accounting information and their specific information needs.
1. Owners and investors
Stockholders of corporations need financial information to help them make decisions on what to do with their investments (shares of stock), i.e. hold, sell, or buy more.
Prospective investors need information to assess the company's potential for success and profitability. In the same way, small business owners need financial information to determine if the business is profitable and whether to continue, improve or drop it.
2. Management
In small businesses, management may include the owners. In huge organizations, however, management is usually made up of hired professionals who are entrusted with the responsibility of operating the business or a part of the business. They act as agents of the owners.
The managers, whether owners or hired, regularly face economic decisions – How much supplies will we purchase? Do we have enough cash? How much did we make last year? Did we meet our targets? All those, and many other questions and business decisions, require analysis of accounting information.
3. Lenders
Lenders of funds such as banks and other financial institutions are interested in the company’s ability to pay liabilities upon maturity (solvency).
4. Trade creditors or suppliers
Like lenders, trade creditors or suppliers are interested in the company’s ability to pay obligations when they become due. They are nonetheless especially interested in the company's liquidity – its ability to pay short-term obligations.
5. Government
Governing bodies of the state, especially the tax authorities, are interested in an entity's financial information for taxation and regulatory purposes. Taxes are computed based on the results of operations and other tax bases. In

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Financial Reporting

...Week 1 Financial reporting and its analysis has an important role in the information intermediaries (auditors, press, financial analysts) and financial intermediaries (banks, insurance companies, mutual funds) functioning. Information intermediaries and financial intermediaries use the information from the financial reports to investigate the investment opportunities and find the “good” ones (Palepu, Healy & Peek, 2013). The “lemons” problem explains the problem in identifying the “good” and “bad” ideas being offered in the market (Holod & Peek, n.d.). The “bad” ideas are valued by investors at an average level, as they know that in the market there are both types of ideas. This approach, unfortunately, leads to less attractive conditions of financing to the owners of “good” ideas; the proportion of “bad” ideas increases. The identification of “good” investments can be performed by following the four steps (Palepu, Healy & Peek, 2013): * Business strategy analysis * Accounting analysis * Financial analysis * Prospective analysis All the above analysis get the information from the financial statements, publically data available, from business application context that consists of credit analysis, debt analysis, general business analysis and other details on corporate business (Palepu, Healy & Peek, 2013). The business strategy analysis is a tool to form the performance expectations using industry data and competitive strategy data. Accounting analysis assess...

Words: 745 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Financial Reporting

...Financial Reporting Research In many cases, a business is not successful without a well-organized financial branch of their company. Whether it is a small business and reporting is done by the owner or if it is a large business that has a financial department, a company needs to know if it is making a profit. Modern accounting is believed to have begun around 1494 A.D. Book keeping entered into the Unites States in late 19th century. The first accounting exam was held by and organization in 1896. Today, accounting is used throughout the world and business to communicate, buy, sell and barter with each other very frequently and therefore, International accounting principles have been developed for the entire globe (Csebfalvi, 2012). In today’s highly competitive business world the environment requires companies to create a business strategy that includes accounting. This portion of their business strategy will help them achieve their strategic goals for the organization. In 1973, the International Accounting Standings Committee came in to existence in order to establish new international standards. The International Accounting Standards Board is the committee responsible for developing International Financial Reporting Standards (Knowledge guide to international accounting standards). This firm ensures that businesses are applying these standards to their financial reports. The first recorded account of international accounting was an article by Lord Benson called The...

Words: 1160 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Quality of Financial Reporting

...NiCE Working Paper 09-108 April 2009 Quality of Financial Reporting: measuring qualitative characteristics Ferdy van Beest Geert Braam Suzanne Boelens Nijmegen Center for Economics (NiCE) Institute for Management Research Radboud University Nijmegen P.O. Box 9108, 6500 HK Nijmegen, The Netherlands http://www.ru.nl/nice/workingpapers 1 Abstract We construct a compound measurement tool to comprehensively assess the quality of financial reporting in terms of the underlying fundamental qualitative characteristics (i.e. relevance and faithful representation) and the enhancing qualitative characteristics (i.e. understandability, comparability, verifiability and timeliness) as defined in ‘An improved Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting’ of the FASB and the IASB (2008). The operationalization of these qualitative characteristics results in a 21-item index. Using 231 annual reports from companies listed at US, UK, and Dutch stock markets in 2005 and 2007, we test our compound measurement tool on internal validity, inter-rater reliability (Krippendorff’s alpha) and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha). Our findings suggest that the measurement tool used in this study is a valid and reliable approach to assess the quality of financial reports. The measurement tool contributes to improving the quality assessment of financial reporting information, fulfilling a request from both the FASB and the IASB (2008) to make the qualitative characteristics operationally...

Words: 13269 - Pages: 54

Premium Essay

Corporate Financial Reporting

...Report on Disclosure of BASs & BFRSs By Golden Harvest Agro Industries Ltd. & Bangladesh Steel Re-Rolling Mills United International University QUEST FOR EXCELLENCE acade Report On: Golden Harvest Agro Industries Ltd. & Bangladesh Steel Re-Rolling Mills Limited Topic: Disclosure of BASs & BFRSs Course Title: Corporate Financial Reporting Course Code: AIS 4303 Submitted To: James Bakul Sarkar Assistant Professor & Deputy Director, BBA Program United International University Submitted By: Name | ID | Section | Fyaz Mahbub Rohan | 114 121 025 | A | Md. Ariful Islam | 114 121 045 | | Md. Hasan Alif | 114 121 091 | | Safayet Mustafa | 114 121 107 | | Ahmed Zubaier | 114 121 020 | | Anik Kumar Das | 114 121 064 | | Moniruzzaman Khan | 114 131 048 | | Date of Submission: 20th April 2016 Fyaz Mahbub Rohan (114 121 025): a. Front Page DesignContribution of Group Members b. Introduction c. Summary of BAS s & BFRSs d. Company Overview e. Disclosure of BAS s & BFRSs f. Conclusion g. Data Collection Md. Ariful Islam (114 121 045) a. Letter of Transmittal b. Executive Summary c. Introduction d. Summary of BAS s & BFRSs e. Disclosure of BAS s & BFRSs Md. Hasan Alif(114 121 091) a. Summary of BAS s & BFRSs b. Disclosure of BAS s & BFRSs c...

Words: 24914 - Pages: 100

Free Essay

Financial Reporting Timeline

...Financial Reporting Timeline The creation of: 1. Committee on Accounting Procedures Role - With the recent increase in members, the SEC delegated the responsibility of issuing pronouncements on accounting principles to the Committee. The SEC worked with the Committee on Accounting Procedures to develop standards for accounting and financial reporting and issued 51 Accounting Research Bulletins (ARBs) over its lifetime. In 1949, they updated 42 of their original ARBs and codified them. a. History - In 1933, the Special Committee on Development of Accounting Principles was formed by the AICPA. Quite simply, this committee did not get much done and was replaced by the Committee on Account Procedures in 1936. For the first two years, this committee also made very little progress. In 1938, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued Accounting Series Release No. 4 which asserted that any financial statements prepared in accordance with principles that had no substantial authoritative support would be considered inaccurate. This prompted the CAP to expand from 7 members to 21 members and increased its activity. b. Structure – The Committee on Accounting Procedures was committee formed by the American Institute of Accountants after the SEC delegated to it the responsibility of issuing pronouncements on accounting principles without government council. Initially, the CAP wanted to create guidance for solving accounting problems, but did not believe they had enough...

Words: 3361 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

The Future of Financial Reporting

...Over the past decade, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have been working together to form a set of global standards. They are trying to make the International Financial Reporting Standards the globally accepted financial reporting principles. 1. As an international manager or investor, what benefits do you see from the growing adoption of IFRS across countries? Growing the adoption of IFRS across countries will allow for more comparable financial statements and disclosures globally. Investors and other financial statement users will be able to see how international companies compare to one another. Currently, U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) varies from IFRS in many ways, some causing significant differences in accounting for certain topics. Growing the adoption will also allow companies and all its subsidiaries to use the same set of standards. 2. In your mind, what are the three most substantial challenges to the growth and development of IFRS in the coming years? Why? The three most substantial challenges to the growth and development of IFRS in the coming years are “convergence” or full adoption of IFRS, large costs of adopting IFRS, and the disagreement with the EU. Convincing all nations to adopt IFRS as is, with no specific national standards stepping in, is going to be a difficult process. “Convergence is an impossible dream. You will always find issues where you basically...

Words: 1095 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Financial Accounting and Reporting

...Financial Accounting and Reporting March 2015 Maldives Business School Cover Page ASSIGNMENT BRIEF BTEC HND/Associate Degree in Business (Management/HR/Marketing) The student must fill the relevant parts of the following table. Student Date Student First Name Student Last Name ID Task No. submitted Date issued Mohamed 1 8th March 2015 Statement of authenticity I, the above named student, hereby confirm that this assignment is my own work and not copied or plagiarized. It has not previously been submitted as part of any assessment. All the sources, from which information has been obtained for this assignment, have been referenced in the Harvard format. I further confirm that I have read and understood the Maldives Business School rules and regulations about plagiarism and copying and agree to be bound by them. Assignment summary information Unit 10 Financial Accounting & Reporting Unit Assignment reference 1 Assignment type This is an individual assignment. Task Submit on Do on Task 1: LO1, LO3, LO4, M1, M2, D1, D2, D3: Report 11 April 2015 NA Task 2: LO2, M3: Class assessment NA 23 March 2015 An extension must be applied for in writing by individual students and will only be granted Extensions for valid reasons. Late submissions Late submissions will be marked for all grades but will incur a fine of MVR 500. Assessor(s): Internal verifier: Assessor(s) please fill the table below AFTER the evaluation. Assessment Feedback ...

Words: 4124 - Pages: 17

Premium Essay

Specific Financial Reporting

...FAC3703/101/3/2015 Tutorial letter 101/3/2015 Specific Financial Reporting FAC3703 Semesters 1 and 2 Department of Financial Accounting IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Please activate your myUnisa profile and myLife email address and ensure you have regular access to the myUnisa module site FAC3703 as well as to your group site. Note: This is an online module, and therefore your module is available on myUnisa. CONTENTS Page 1 INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4 2 FORMAT OF FAC3703 ................................................................................................................4 2.1 Fully online ...................................................................................................................................4 2.2 Printed materials...........................................................................................................................5 3 PURPOSE OF AND OUTCOMES FOR FAC3703........................................................................5 3.1 Purpose ........................................................................................................................................5 3.2 Outcomes .....................................................................................................................................6 4 LECTURERS AND CONTACT DETAILS .......

Words: 12588 - Pages: 51

Premium Essay

Financial Accounting & Reporting

...FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING & REPORTING LECTURE 1: Link Between Business and Accounting Dr. Namasivayam Lecture 1 1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Define accounting & explain why accounting information is important. 2. Identify users of accounting information. 3. Explain the contents of the 3 basic financial statements. 3. Explain the relationship between accounting equation and the balance sheet. 5. Analyse business transactions using the accounting equation. Lecture 1 2 WHAT IS ACCOUNTING? It is the way business people set goals, measure results, evaluate performance, and communicate results to various users. Lecture 1 3 ACCOUNTING LINKS … Lecture 1 4 USERS OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION • Managers • Potential buyers • Trade creditors • Employees • Customers • Tax inspectors • Business owners • Potential partners • Bank institutions • Competitors • Auditors • Society Lecture 1 5 SHORT EXERCISES You as user of accounting information: i. Identify several ways in which you currently use accounting information in your life as a student or individual. ii. Identify several situations in which you might be required to supply financial information about yourself to others. Lecture 1 6 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS A quantitative report which describes the financial health of a business. This includes: An Income Statement; A Balance Sheet; A Cash Flow Statement. Lecture 1 7 THE...

Words: 415 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Global Financial Reporting

...Running Head: GLOBAL FINANCIAL REPORTING: Global Financial Reporting: Why Move Toward Global Financial Reporting Connie Cerruto Student ID 3247960261 Accounting Capstone: Senior Seminar in Accounting ACC 499 005016 Winter Semester 2008 Submitted to Professor Tee Thein March 16, 2008 Dedication and Acknowledgement I would like to take this time to thank my husband, George, for all his support over this last ten weeks. For graciously doing the laundry, vacuuming, dusting, grocery shopping, meal preparing, and dishes so I had time complete the needed research for my paper. I appreciate the sacrifices you made to support me in my efforts of obtaining a Bachelors Degree in Accounting. Table of Contents Page Abstract 5 Chapter 1: Introduction 6 1.1 Background 6 1.2 Problem 7 1.3 Purpose 7 1.4 Scope 8 Chapter 2: Review of Literature 9 Chapter 3: Methodologies 12 3.1 Perspective 12 3.2 Research Procedure 12 Chapter 4: Development of Accounting Principles 17 4.1 History of Accounting Differences 17 4.1.1 Ancient Recordkeeping 17 4.1.2 Double-Entry Accounting 19 ...

Words: 16813 - Pages: 68

Premium Essay

Financial Reporting Environment

...current financial reporting environment in Sri Lanka and its impact on the companies listed on the Colombo stock exchange. Hotel SIGIRIYA PLC has been chosen to study the financial reporting requirements, cultural impacts and the political influences on the Sri Lankan listed companies. 1. Financial Reporting Environment in Sri Lanka 2.1. Current financial reporting requirements for publically listed companies in Sri Lanka. In August 2007, two stages were adopted by Sri Lankan accounting standards regulators to form the international Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). They traversed from Stage I of IFRS Adoption to Stage III, due to the result of a “gap” between the international and national sets of standards in Sri Lanka. However, on 1 January 2012, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) successfully adopted IFRS. (eStandards Forum, 2008, p. 5). According to the Colombo Stock Exchange (2014) a requirement for a listed entity is that it must “ensure that the annual report is issued to the Entity’s shareholders and shall not exceed five (05) months from the close of the financial year of the Listed Entity when given to the Exchange”. Furthermore, publishing of the Audited Financial Statements must be in accordance with the Sri Lanka Accounting Standards. (Colombo Stock Exchange 2014 -Listing Rules s.7.5 pg4) The Colombo Stock Exchange (2014) also requires an Interim Financial Statement prepared by the listed entity. The Financial Statement...

Words: 2500 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Financial Reporting in Social Reality

...this essay is to discuss financial reporting is both a reflection and creator of our perception of social reality and is consistently evolving. By means of research of these source collections, relevant evidence is selected, evaluated and organized into three key areas: the Carbon tax legislation represents a creation of a new social reality and the impact on sustainability in business. The carbon tax would be represented in the financial reports. To introduce the particular company and legislation impacts on that company. The Framework shows that the financial reporting is present relevant and reliable information. Some experts considered that the insufficient information on financial reporting impact on social reality. Thus, the Sustainability reporting occurs to fix up the fanatical reporting gaps. Introduction Financial reporting is both a reflection and creator of our perception of social reality and consistently evolving. Currently, accounting system is not only focus on the data of how much company earns, it also shift towards to social responsibility. As the dramatic of pollutions, especially that of the developing nations is extremely harmful not only to the surrounding environment, but also to the inhabitants of that country as well. Thus, financial reporting take concern on such problems and create out Sustainability reporting which help to reduce the pollutions. This essay is to discuss the both reflection and creator of financial reporting in reality social and...

Words: 2231 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Differences in Financial Reporting Practices

...basic cause of international difference in financial reporting practice is the different degree of interference by governments in accounting. It is understood that “International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)” has been adopted in many countries around the world, as a minimum for the companies that are obliged for financial reporting. IFRS has been implemented in nearly one hundred and fifteen countries around the world, whilst phasing out the previous standard of rules of Generally Accepted Accounting Practice or more commonly known as GAAP. The United States is the only large major country to holdout and not adopt IFRS. IFRS is increasing its widespread backing from all over the world. All United States established companies are obliged to use the “Financial Accounting Standards Board FASB” (Wikipedia, 2012) many companies use these set of standards as they are “detailed and comprehensive” (Media Wiley) compared to the “International Accounting Standards Board IASB” (Wikipedia, 2012) which are more set in stone and less rule based. What the United States need is a set of high quality accounting standards improves comparability. “It is generally believed that IFRS has the best potential to provide a common platform on which companies can report and investors can compare financial information.” (Media Wiley) It is expected that if all countries adopt IFRS it will be beneficial for investors and others who use financial statements by reducing costs and increasing...

Words: 815 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Issues in Financial Reporting Assignment

...Assessment Task 1 – Issues in Financial Reporting Question 1 There are many potential benefits associated with the international standardisation of accounting standards. Firstly, the standardisation of accounting standards makes it easier for international investors to better understand, compare, and interpret the financial performance and position of companies from different countries that are in competition with each other or are operating within a similar industry. Greater comparability and analysis of information helps these international investors to make more efficient, educated and intelligent investment decisions, particularly when it comes to deciding between the alternative investments on offer, and helps them to take advantage of the risk reduction that is possible through international diversification. Secondly, the harmonisation of international accounting standards reduces barriers to capital inflows by helping companies raise capital in domestic as well as international markets. This is useful particularly for those companies that find it difficult to obtain the funding necessary for their long-term growth and expansion projects in their local economy due to a scarcity of resources. To overcome this problem, companies can have their securities listed on foreign stock exchanges and in doing so, be able to significantly expand their base of capital funding. Harmonisation makes this possible because investors as a result are better able to understand the status...

Words: 2353 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

The Canadian Financial Reporting Environment

... THE CANADIAN FINANCIAL REPORTING ENVIRONMENT Multiple Choice—Conceptual Answer No. Description d 1. Accounting characteristics. a 2. Nature of financial accounting. c 3. Definition of financial accounting. a 4. Financial reporting entity. d 5. Efficient use of resources. d 6. Capital allocation process. c 7. Assessing management stewardship. c 8. Objectives of financial reporting. a 9. Role of AcSB. c 10. Body responsible for setting GAAP. b 11. Preparation of biased information. d 12. Parties instrumental in development of reporting standards. d 13. Stakeholders in the financial reporting environment.. a 14. “Due process”. d 15. Causes of subprime lending crisis. d 16. Management bias. b 17. Adoption of IFRS. c 18. Role of OSC. d 19. Definition of GAAP. b 20. Changing nature of the economy. d 21. Exercise of professional judgement. c 22. Major factors in the reporting environment. a 23. Impact of technology on financial reporting. b 24. Nature of the “Balanced Scorecard”. a 25. Responsibility for financial statements. d 26. GAAP for private enterprises. d 27. Reporting principles b 28. SOX. a 29 AcSB’s standard setting process Exercises Item Description E1-30 Objectives of financial reporting. E1-31 Role of securities commissions and stock exchanges. E1-32 User needs. E1-33 Sources of GAAP. E1-34 Standard Setting. E1-35 Challenges facing financial reporting. E1-36 Stakeholders...

Words: 2621 - Pages: 11